Orphan in Limbo

Charlotte Marion

--- A Day Later ---
--- 23rd of December, 1962 ---

A day has passed since Odette's labouring process and giving a birth to her newborn daughter, naming her Charlotte Marion.

Not only Kit and the former members of the church were beyond mesmerized and proud of Odette, moreover Odette was beyond smug and gleeful over the remarkable event in her life, opening a new chapter in the book of her life, full of trials. Little did she know how greater chances were awaiting her to give a birth and most of all, look after one more life as its numbered as the youngest family member among the Howards.

On the following night after the newborn's birth, thereafter it was issued a birth certificate for the little sweet ray of sunshine as she was cleaned, swaddled and the anxious parents and Odette's boyfriend flee the patient's room, leaving the juvenile mother to rest until she's ready to pick up her daughter and go home at last. 

After the small family got back at home on the morning after, the juvenile singer received galore of phone calls from her childhood friend, Serena, Elsa, Evelyn, Massimo and Frank. They were beyond mesmerized how the young mother was capable of giving birth and surviving the agonizing contractions even persevering the obnoxious pushes, besides being flabbergasted she has given birth to her first ever child at age 19 as they were alright. 

Whilst Timothy and Jude were downstairs, drinking some tea as they were looking out the window, contemplating the extraordinarily beauteous winter scenery which was naturally portrayed with the tumbling down snowflakes as the pile of snow sheeted the ground, adorning the bare trees' branches, Kit and Odette were upstairs in the young woman's bedroom as the little girl laid securely, peacefully into her mother's arms, staring up with her huge azure hazelish pools her parents as they were seating on the royal, velvet armchairs against the French window as its day light dispersed through the flimsy glasses of the window, bathing the room in light.

"Aww, look at our treasure, Kit!" The juvenile singer evoked in honeyed voice as she stroked gingerly, lightly the infant's sparse chestnut hair, admiring its softness as velveteen. Her slim fingers faintly raking the sparse hairs.

"She's for sure the most beautiful baby I've ever seen!" The young gas station's salesman couldn't agree more, bobbing humbly his head in agreement, peppering feather, doting kisses on his daughter's cheeks, whereas his adroit fingers warily caressed the satin, wee fingers of the baby as Charlotte giggled cheerfully.

"Can't we just agree she's the most precious thing in this world?"

"Of course, my one of a kind!" He pursued for her naturally rosy-coloured lips by sealing them with sultry, brief kiss as their faces approached, closing its gap and their heart beats' frequence accelerated in their chests. "It's as the prettiest baby as her mommy is the prettiest woman in this world!" In the meanwhile, Odette couldn't repress a girlish, demure chuckle, tickling her oral caverns. "I love you both very much with my entire heart even if this child isn't entirely mine at all." 

"I love ya more than anything, Kit and Charlotte! I couldn't be happier and luckier for finding such spectacular and supportive man as you're, Kit!" 

"It's a honor for me, Odie!"

At the moment, the bedroom's door squaked, resulting 2 more visitors as the former members of the clergy set a foot in the sufficiently spacious room, offering benevolent, soothing smiles, honed up in the corner of their lips as their dark eyes were fixed on the young couple with the married couple's granddaughter, nestled peacefully in Odette's secure, fragile arms.

"Aww, look at you, my sweethearts!" The blonde exclaimed joyously as she moderated the decibels, in order to not wake her granddaughter, lurching up to the juvenile couple as her heart molted at the lovely sight, admiring it cordially. In the interim, she drew promptly Odette and Kit's attentions as they averted their gazes to the married couple, wearing rejoiced looks on their pale as ghosts, parchment complexions as boundless gaiety was sketched upon them. 

"Hey!" Timothy said as he wiped the perspiration's clammy layer, baptizing his temple with the back of his colossal, protective hand as his other arm was bracing Jude's upper back, poising her, in case if an accident befalls her. "You're so cute together, Kit and Odie! How is the little sweet ray of sunshine?" He questioned with ginormous inquisitiveness, vomited in his British, velvety voice. 

"She's fine!" The singer replied enthusiastically, softly as the former priest crouched down as Jude seated alongside Kit, gasping sluggishly as her hazelish-brown orbs were glued on the younger adults with the young girl. At the moment, Timothy caressed gently his granddaughter's chubby cheeks, admiring her timeless beauty. "It looks like she's very comfortable with yar presences, beside ours." Soft hum harmonised her vocal stings as the baby glanced at her grandmother, thereafter transfixing her big ocean hazel eyes on the former man of the cloth as a modest, loving smile cradled her lips, forming a crescent form. 

"For sure! Since we're her grandparents and she's just lovely girl!" The former holy woman heaved a sigh of relief, pawing her chest with the palm of her hand, whereas another violent baby kick flinched her, instictively lowering her solely free hand to the bump, rubbing it as her fingers raked the cotton fabric. 

"It's goddamn unbelievable I'd have this luck to have a daughter of mine and therefore a grandchild especially as gorgeous as ya, honey!"

"Kit, you're lucky man for having such modest and unique lady of your heart!" 

"I know, Tim! She's the luckier one for finding somebody who cares about her, besides it's brutally honest with her."

"I know who do ya mean eventually, Kit! It's ya!" The middle-aged lady said in mildly jeering manner as the horde of adults couldn't suppress mellow snickers in low voice, zinging their lips. 

Pride and glee enveloped the young man's heart as soon as Jude proclaimed his name shamelessly, remorselessly as if she was announcing the lottery's winner in front of the participants. 

Smug, alleviating smile flashed upon his youthful, milky as snow face.

"I couldn't be more grateful to ya for accepting me to be part of yar family as I'm ultimately responsible for Odette and Charlotte's safety, besides herself."

"No need to! Yar already part of our family since the beginning as the inner voices and insticts told us what kind of person exactly you are."

The former devotional members of the church contemplated, admiring the ethereally dazzling scenery of their love child with her boyfriend and daughter as they could never picture this miracle being so true for them especially a decade and a half after resigning from the church for better life and accomplishing carte blanche, in order to be a family people with children which the diocese has deemed them as forbidden acts and against the ecclesiatical code,  breaking their once took solemn vooks and marrying themselves including their bodies to God. 

Furthermore, the former sister of the church couldn't picture even more the miracle of being married and most of all having a child along with a grandchild after passing through the hell's gates, overcrowded with diabolical, truculent trials, blocking her path for accomplishing ultimately felicity and finding path to light, illuminating the ebony darkness as its general population of it is nothing more than shadows and demons, returning from her past and haunting her in the future. Surveying each manner and took step in her life, in fact, to figure out the better decision for her and perhaps the love of her life. 

To be continued...